Queensland public service to be reduced to a 10-pen bureaucracy

The public service will be hit by cost-cutting, but how many types of pen do you need? Photograph: Don McPhee for the Guardian

There are a lot of Australian public servants who will be dealing with some penned up frustrations after it was announced that the 395 different types of pens available to them are about to be slashed to just 10.

The Queensland government, looking for ways to save money, turned to the humble stationery cupboard, where it was alarmed at the quantity on offer.

It is understood the staff were being offered highlighters and ballpoints in every colour and at a cost ranging from 5c a pen to more than $20 each.

The Queensland minister for public works, Tim Mander, has told an estimates committee: “If that is what is happening with something as small as pens, can you imagine the money that we are wasting with the higher levels of expenditure? Under the new procurement process there will only be 10 types of pens that will be offered, from three suppliers.”

What type of pen would you be sorry to see disappear from your life? What is the best pen?

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